A Lakota-Dakota-speaking Berenstain Bears cartoon is the kid magnet at the new Innovation Gallery at the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The Gallery is one of four new galleries built in the Society’s newly expanded Heritage Center educational museum space. You can see that children hear the language on the telephone handsets while seeing

The Lakota-language play, Iktómi Lečhála Tȟawíčutȟuŋ (Iktomi’s New Wife) has its premiere tonight at 7 pm at the Standing Rock High School Auditorium, 9819 Highway 24 in Fort Yates.  Admission is FREE. Blaze Starkey and Peter Hill practice being MeadowlarksIt's based on two Iktomi stories, one of which is well-known: "Iktomi's Blanket." That story was collected

After this excitement on Friday … SRST Chairman Dave Archambault and President Barack Obama, June 13, 2014 … more visitors from Washington, DC arrived on  Saturday … L-R: Jan Ullrich, Sunshine Carlow, William Mendoza, Ron Lessard, Wil Meya, Kim Campbell … to talk about Native American language preservation. Roundtable on

During Week 2 of LSI, the schedule was stretched to “start early, end late,” in order to accommodate the special event that fell in our laps: a visit by the President of the United States and First Lady to the Summer Powwow at Cannon Ball, ND, on the Standing Rock reservation, less than an hour

Oneida Native Steve Elm doesn’t speak Lakota – but that doesn’t stop him from having a blast at the Lakota Summer Institute! Steve Elm Steve is a polished theater pro from New York City who has worked with renowned Native American theater companies and artists, writing, directing and performing in original works.  His

While still abuzz with LSI classes and anticipation of President Obama’s visit on Friday, the Sitting Bull College campus is a bit quieter this week. The MHA and Crow Nations have finished their first Summer Institutes, initiating language education and revitalization programs based on carefully planned K-12 curricula and proven second-language education methods. The MHASI

Teacher and LSI Instructor Courtney Yellow Fat meets a young language student Many of the second-language speakers and students at LSI are parents of young children, and they are determined to pass the Lakota language on.  One of these is Denny Gayton, of Standing Rock. Denny Gayton Denny told us he

Week Two! Section Two! Here we go again ... Coming up this week, Teaching Lakota/Dakota II, more Language Intensives, and the return of Northern Plains Sign Language, with Dr. Lanny Real Bird of the Crow Nation. Dr. Real Bird brings back instruction in nearly 200 hand signs that were the common language between many, many tribes

#LSI2014 #SittingBullCollege #StandingRockSiouxTribe #EndangeredLanguages #LakotaLanguage Ben Black Bear Jr. The energy of the young people at LSI keeps the elders on their toes! Board Work It’s clear the long, hard work of the elders has paved the way for this wave of younger students ... A good connection ...

The Lakota Summer Institute and Lakota Language Consortium are proud to announce distinguished theater professional Steve Elm will direct a new play this summer as the culmination of the annual Lakota Summer Institute – a play that will be performed entirely in the Lakota language. “Language, to me, is the key to theater,” says Steve